Buffy the Vampire Slayer

If you love bridal shows and haven't checked out 'Say Yes to the Dress' yet, now is a perfect opportunity. The reality series returns Friday, April 30, 9PM ET on TLC, and it's all about the inner workings of Kleinfeld Bridal, a premiere bridal salon whose goal is to make every bride completely happy with her wardrobe for the big day.

In honor of the show's return, I've compiled a few TV weddings that didn't happen for various reasons. Maybe if the brides had gone to Kleinfeld Bridal, things would have turned out differently ... or not.

For top TV weddings that actually did happen, check out Memorable TV Weddings. Jim and Pam, Niles and Daphne, and Luke and Laura made the list.

For those not keeping track, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise has continued to a season eight in the comic books. In her latest escapades, Buffy (with her Slayer army) has been fighting a masked villain named Twilight who apparently is familiar with Buffy.

In an interview, Dark Horse editor Scott Alie revealed the secret identity of Twilight. Spoiler is after the jump ...

Marti Noxon will be writing the remake of the cult 1980's flick Fright Night. For those who don't know, Noxon is a writer on the series Mad Men (for which she got a WGA nomination) among other shows. She is best remembered for her singing appearances on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Once More With Feeling" (she was a writer and producer on that show too) and the Internet phenomenon Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

Getting into movies for a moment, Fright Night was always a guilty pleasure of mine. Noxon is a good choice to write it too. Along with the diversity of her writing experience, she has used the same sort of combination of horror/humor when she wrote Buffy.

If you haven't been reading the comics, shame on you. Without the restrictions of a television budget, some crazy cool things have been happening. Like Dawn growing to enormous size and Buffy teaming up with Dracula to take out a band of rogue Asian vampires. Also, Buffy travels to the future to meet Slayer-from-the-future Malaka Fray (who was in a previous comic series of her own).

Whedon is obviously a fan of comics. The good news is, in comic books, the series never has to end. We could all be enjoying Buffy season 337 in a few centuries. Well, our descendants would be anyway. It's something to look forward to.

When I first started exploring this project, there were a few shows that I knew were going to be important to hit. This is the first of those. Firefly was Joss Whedon's sci-fi western series. The show mustered disappointing ratings in its short eleven-episode run on FOX.

Since then it's gone on to near mythic cult status. There was such an outcry of support from its loyalists, the Browncoats, over its cancellation that the producers made a feature film sequel. That movie,Serenity, answered a lot of questions about the future fate of the cast. Unfortunately, like the television series, it couldn't find quite enough people to show up and tune in to warrant a sequel. Nevertheless, the few morsels of Firefly we did get are enough to prove that this is one of the most innovative and enjoyable series ever to hit the airwaves.

Before pondering the meaning of identity on Dollhouse, Joss Whedon gave us some great shows featuring iconic heroes and some really nasty but unforgettable villains.

Unlike Dollhouse, most of Whedon's earlier shows featured a "big bad," a major villain who caused trouble throughout an entire season, or series, for the heroes and their friends. Luckily, Whedon's heroes always managed to outwit these evildoers, but they couldn't stop them from stealing scenes and making the Whedonverse a very, very dangerous place to live.

Let's take a look back at some of Whedon's best "big bads" that made life a living hell for Buffy, Angel and Captain Mal.

Earlier today, we told you about Summer Glau landing a recurring role on Joss Whedon's Dollhouse. Glau, of course, has worked with Mr. Whedon before on the much loved but short-lived Firefly and its film spinoff, Serenity.

This isn't the first time Whedon has cast actors he's worked with before in a new project; he does it all the time. But like Squad commenter "davem" pointed out, actors who return to the Whedonverese for a second go-round usually end up playing villains.

So does this mean Glau is destined to be the new big bad on Dollhouse?

Caprica producer and former Buffy the Vampire Slayer scribe Jane Espenson is one of the minds behind the latest arc on Joss Whedon's Buffy comic that sees vampires coming out of the coffin. After the very True Blood-esque outing, vacuous vamp Harmony goes on The Colbert Report to, of course, promote her new reality TV show in the latest issue of Dark Horse Presents.

The Buffy comic is a direct continuation of Joss Whedon's TV series, and the medium has allowed the Buffy story to go to places it never could have gone on TV. Fans itching for a Buffy fix should pick up an issue or head over to MySpace to follow Harmony's adventures with Clem, the hilarious "loose-skinned demon" who first befriended Buffy and crew on the TV series.

Colbert is becoming a regular in the comic book world, with appearances in Spider-Man and his own comic book series, Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen. Maybe Buffy should show up on The Daily Show to give Jon Stewart some comic book love in next month's issue.

Marsters will do what he does best on Caprica: play a dangerous and unpredictable baddie driven by his carnal and moralistic desires. EW tells us that Marsters will play a terrorist leader named Barnabus Greele in at least three episodes of the upcoming Syfy series.

Hundreds of Joss Whedon fans are expected to take over the small town of LaVergne, TN this weekend for WhedonFest 2009, a celebration of all things Joss Whedon. A fan group called Whedonites United is holding the three-day event in the Tennessee Valley woods. Yes, it's a camping trip (and no, the irony is not lost on us).

The first-ever Whedonfest will offer a number of nerdy activities for Whedon devotees, including role-playing hours, an improv show, and a number of panel discussions, like "The Nature of Identity in Dollhouse," inspired by Whedon's work.

Anthony Stewart Head, who played the character of Rupert Giles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer a long, long time ago, has hinted that the British spin-off Ripper (which would star the character of Giles) is not outside the realm of possibility.

Granted, there are a few pitfalls in the way. Creator Joss Whedon is busy with his series Dollhouseand his upcoming movie Cabin in the Woods. Plus there may be some confusion regarding the character if they get that Whedon-less Buffy movie made.

There is definitely still life left in the Buffy franchise (look at all the successful series and movies out there involving vampires with a female protagonist). I'm sorry Joss didn't use that Eliza Dushku contract to make a series about the character of Faith rather than Dollhouse, although I understand his creative need to spread his wings. In my mind, there is only a matter of time before they make a feature film that is a direct spin-off from the television series that involves Joss Whedon and doesn't suck. Fingers crossed.

OK, so she turned evil and veiny and almost destroyed the world after someone murdered her hot lesbian lover. But at heart, Willow Rosenberg was always a computer-hacking, research-loving nerd.

The Buffy the Vampire Slayer character landed at number one on Topless Robot's list of "Pop Culture's 10 Greatest Nerds." I was surprised by the pick at first, but I can't think of a better choice to top the list. Willow was a great character, and will probably always be actor Alyson Hannigan's best role (sorry, HIMYMfans, but it's true).

It looks like Roy Lee and Doug Davison of Vertigo Entertainment are working with original movie director Fran Rubel Kuzui, the director of the original movie, to create a remake of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The trick is, they're not involving the creator or any of the original cast of the television series. In fact, they're not even basing it on the television series.

If ever there was a recipe for disaster, this is it. McG's proposed version of Spaced sucked eggs for similar reasons (a failure to grasp what made it successful). This could potentially work if you took out the word "Buffy" from the title and didn't try to sully the name of the franchise, but otherwise, I don't see it.

Of course, it is early in the process. There are a million ways that this horrific idea can die an early death, which would sure beat the embarrassment of the certain death of nobody going to see this movie.

Well, you guys were absolutely right. Season five of Angel is awesome, and I'm so glad I slugged through some of the earlier seasons that didn't exactly float my vampire boat.

The writing in season five is excellent, the characters are both fun and multidimensional (especially Wesley, whose story only gets more and more tragic), and it's just a great all-around season. Here are five reasons why I loved this season as much as any TV show (including Buffy).

If you've been following my Jane After Dark adventures, you know it's all about the DVDs I watch into the wee hours while I'm covering the TV Squad queue and everyone else (at least in my house) is sleeping.

After that, I need you to help me choose my next Jane After Dark series. There are so many great TV shows on DVD, and frankly, I'm stumped at what to watch next. So please vote in my poll below, and tell me what to do! And if you don't see your series listed, tell me in the comments, and I'll add it to the list next time.